The phantoms of Whitehall

Amid Theresa May’s bonfire of ministers last week, it was easy to forget the chaotic effect of a reshuffle on civil servants. Dunstan Hadley, a former education official, recalls the turmoil after Gordon Brown moved in to No 10 with plans to axe the DfE. The day after Brown’s accession, Hadley had to type a speech for a Labour minister in the Lords when the power cut out. He found a spare laptop and started from scratch before sprinting to the Lords in search of a printer. He wrote in Civil Service World: “As I stood at the printer, sweating and trying to catch my breath, it dawned on me that this speech was for a minister who may not even have his job by…